Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to chair her first meeting of the GST council today. The newly appointed finance minister will preside over a gamut of issues including considering extending the tenure of the anti-profiteering authority by a year, setting up a single point refund system and a mechanism for businesses to issue e-invoices.
Deliberations will also be done on GST filing by businesses because less than expected GST collection has brought the many businesses under scanner.The agenda of the meeting will also include integration of GST e-way bill system with NHAI’s FASTag mechanism from April 1, 2020, to help track movement of goods and check GST evasion and slashing GST on electric vehicles to 5 per cent from 12 per cent.
The council is also likely to look at and approve a draft amendment bill to bring changes in GST law to allow businesses to rectify mistakes during payment of GST and applicability of interest only on cash component in case of delayed payment of GST.
Discussion on mechanism for single point sanctioning and processing GST refunds will also take place in the meeting. The half-day meeting will begin at 2 pm followed by a pre-budget meeting presided by the FM in New Delhi.
